Loss of Learning during the Pandemic

 The COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted a profound crisis upon education, resulting in a loss of learning for students worldwide. Alarming is the widespread phenomenon of ‘forgetting’ by students of learning from the previous class – this is a regression in their curricular learning. The foundational abilities are such that their absence will impact the learning of more complex abilities and conceptual understanding across subjects.

The study was conducted in 5 states of India across 1137 schools, class 2 to 6 which comprises of 16000 students. The data paints a grim picture of the extent of learning loss in India. In the realm of language, a staggering 92% of children, on average, have regressed in at least one specific language ability of the previous year in oral communication, reading comprehension, and sentence construction. In mathematics, 82% of students have regressed in specific mathematical skills, including number recognition, arithmetic operations, and problem-solving.

Three possible solutions:

1.    Flexible Curriculum Design:

Ø  Extend flexible curriculum approach to all subjects. Incorporate the previous grade's learning outcomes into the current curriculum.

Ex: Include foundational skills reinforcement, like 2-digit and 3-digit addition for Grade 4 students. Grade 6- classifying food components in science, it is essential to address foundational knowledge and differentiate various food items and understand their sources.

Ø  Consider students' socio-emotional needs in curriculum development.

Ø  Implement child-friendly assessment methods.

2.    Teacher Professional Development:

Ø  Prioritize teachers' understanding of students' socio-emotional well-being.

Ø  Adopt effective models like the Japanese lesson study:

§  Co-facilitation

§  Classroom demonstrations

§  Reflection

Ø  Provide ongoing professional development opportunities for teachers and enhance teaching skills to adapt to evolving learning needs.

 

3. Learning Support:

Ø  Conduct assessments to identify individual student needs.

Ø  Develop tailored support plans:

§  Target group assistance

§  Small group instruction

§  Peer monitoring

Ø  Create teaching aids and custom worksheets to address specific learning needs.

 

4.    Parental engagement and community awareness:

Ø  Organise a training program for parents and the community regarding learning loss.

Ø  Introduce reading materials and other resources that have been used during that year to recover learning loss.

Reference:

Loss of learning during the Pandemic- Field Studies in Education by Azim Premji University.

Japanese Lesson Study: Teacher Professional Development through Communities of Inquiry Brian Doig and Susie Groves Deakin University.

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Pregnant males- Life of seahorses

 Pregnant males- Life of seahorses

- Haripriya J

Don’t you think that we are blessed to be born on the earth? Have you ever seen an ant that struggles to carry a small piece of cake? Have you ever thought what are the strategies that a mosquito makes just to suck your blood? A small puppy at your home wages its tale so that you can feed him and show him love. Have you seen while cattle grazing, few birds will be around the cattle? Why so? Sometimes I feel we know very little; we have seen very less.

While I was reading a book of Nemichandra which was about great women scientists, I came across a great scientist named Dr. Amanda Vincent, she was the one who studied the lifestyle of sea horse. There I came across a surprising note that Male sea horse get pregnant. We always upheld the sacrifices of our mother who gave us birth. The care she shown to us, she is the one who always stand for us. We sometimes feel bad about the patriarchal society. And we generalize things easily and deny the care and support given by the father. But here a tiny male creature is leading mother’s role of giving birth to their young ones!

How do seahorses differ from all other animals?

I was mesmerized when I read about the lifestyle of Sea horses. For their lifetime, female sea horse mate only with one male sea horse and vice-versa! Everyday Female sea horse meets her partner and after mating she returns. While returning even many male sea horses come across her way, she never bothers about them. They lead their entire life with one partner only. Is it not shocking? When human have trust issues with their life partners how a tiny fish can lead its whole life with only one partner?

Seahorses and their close relatives, sea dragons are the only species in which the male gets pregnant and gives birth. Many researches have done research related to this. I would like to share some points.

Seahorses are members of the pipefish (narrow, elongated, chiefly marine fish with segmented bony armor beneath the skin and a long, tubular snout) family. In addition to their iconic appearance, seahorses possess many interesting attributes. Among them are specialized structures in their skin cells, called chromatophores, which allow the mostly sessile (permanently attached; not freely moving) seahorses to change color to mimic their surroundings. Well

camouflaged as they cling to stalks of seagrass in their shallow habitats, seahorses can be hard to see.

Their truly remarkable biological claim to fame, however, is that male seahorses and sea dragons get pregnant and bear young—a unique adaptation in the animal kingdom.

When it comes to gender stereotypes, seahorses and their relatives would have to be one of the most extreme examples. These fish swap the traditional roles of moms and dads as they are the only animals where the males get pregnant. Even though fish don’t have the external genitalia that we normally associate with males and females, we can still distinguish between them. That’s because we classify animal sexes according to the size of the gametes (sex cells) they produce. Males produce the sperm (the smallest gametes) and females produce the eggs (the biggest gametes).

But in seahorses, the sperm-producers are also the ones that get pregnant. The female transfers her eggs to the male’s abdominal pouch, made of modified skin. The male releases sperm to fertilize the eggs as they enter, before incubating them for 24 days until they are born.

In research published in Molecular Biology and Evolution, just in time for Father’s Day, a team investigated whether male seahorses contribute more to their offspring than just sperm. They took samples from male pouches at different stages of pregnancy and then used new DNA sequencing technologies to assess how pouch gene expression changes. This is the first time that these technologies have been used to examine the full course of pregnancy in any animal. It allowed them to examine the genetic basis of the processes going on inside the pregnant pouch

They found that seahorse pregnancy is incredibly complex: more than 3,000 different genes are involved. When they examined them in detail, they found genes involved in many different processes. They even discovered genes allowing seahorse fathers to provide nutrients to their developing embryos. Fathers supply energy-rich fats and calcium to allow the embryos to build

their tiny skeletons and bony body rings that sit just under the skin. Other pouch genes help the males remove wastes produced by the embryo, such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen.

Seahorse dads even seem to protect embryos from infection, producing antibacterial and antifungal molecules to ward off pathogens. Seahorse birth is even more of a mystery than seahorse pregnancy, and they were excited to find that some of those 3,000 genes also prepare the father and the embryos for labor. With around one week to go, instead of packing a hospital go-bag, seahorse dads start producing hatching signals.

These signals cause the embryos to hatch out from their thin membranes and swim freely inside the brood pouch. As the embryos take up more room, the pouch begins to stretch, much like the belly of a very pregnant human. The hormone estrogen also gets involved and these combined forces produce cascading genetic signals that produce birth.

So, seahorse dads make excellent “moms”, performing many of the same functions that occur in females during mammalian pregnancy and birth. Strikingly, many of the seahorse genes are like those in other pregnant animals. This is surprising because pregnant mammals, reptiles and other fish all incubate their embryos inside the female reproductive tract. Their pregnancies have evolved entirely independently of seahorse pregnancy, millions of years apart, and yet we see the same.

Why would the genes controlling male and female pregnancies be similar? We think that this is because gestation presents the same set of complex challenges to the parent, regardless of species.

Seahorse dads, just like human moms, need to make sure they can provide oxygen and nutrients to their embryos. We do it with a placenta inside a uterus and seahorse dads do it with thickened skin inside a pouch, but we’ve used similar genetic instructions to get there. findings raise the possibility that the same genes have been repeatedly and independently recruited for pregnancy across vertebrate animals – a remarkable display of convergent evolution.

Researchers have shown how seahorse dads use thousands of genes working in concert to provide the ideal environment for embryonic growth. This is a breakthrough in the understanding of the genetics of seahorse reproduction, although much follow up work is required to definitively test the functions of every one of those genes.

Researchers says still they haven’t solved the mystery of why seahorse fathers get pregnant given that females have that responsibility in every other animal. Seahorse moms still contribute nutrient-rich egg yolks that feed developing embryos, but their responsibility for their offspring ends at mating. So, seahorses, with their bizarre reproductive strategies, still have plenty more to offer evolutionary biologists.

See, how strange and beautiful the nature is. A research says, we haven’t explored 50% of Amazon forest, there are lakhs of unknown strange species on the earth which we are still unaware of. Now, you should agree with me that we know very less about our surroundings and least about our earth. Let’s explore the world, love the animal kingdom just open your eyes(mind) and you will see an amazing world around which makes you feel awesome.

Reference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKYk6GPuMeI

The secret sex life and pregnancy of sea horse by Camilla Whittington 

Kaalu Haadiya kolminchugalu- Nemichandra

SPACE DEBRIS!

 SPACE DEBRIS!

By: Haripriya J

Pollution is the most adverse effect which is caused by humans to nature. When we talk about pollution usually, we think about various kinds such as air pollution, water pollution, and soil pollution. Along with these we also talk about noise pollution, radioactive pollution, and light pollution. Our major focus in on those adverse conditions which we feel only on earth. There are various cases where we could not guess where all we have done pollution. We never thought even we can pollute space also! Yes, we have polluted the space around the earth too.

                                 

How it is caused?

Space is polluted majorly by space debris i.e. the artificial satellite which we have launched to know about our Earth.

First, we will know about artificial satellites.

We have come across the moon, the natural satellite of the earth. Artificial satellites are those satellites that are man-made. A satellite is an object that orbits another object. Most man-made satellites also orbit the Earth, but some orbit other planets, such as Saturn, Venus or Mars, or the moon. Satellites are used for many purposes such as Scientific Investigation, Earth observation - including weather forecasting and tracking storms and pollution, Communications - including satellite television and telephone calls, Navigation - including the Global Positioning System (GPS), Military - including reconnaissance photography and communications (nuclear weapons are not allowed in space), etc., The first satellite, Sputnik 1, was put into orbit around Earth was launched by Soviet Union. There are approximately 1,886 artificial satellites orbiting the Earth.

There are certain regions above the earth where these satellites orbit.

They are as:

A geostationary orbit often referred to as a GEO orbit, circles the Earth above the equator from west to east at a height of 36 000 km. As it follows the Earth’s rotation, which takes 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds, satellites in a GEO orbit appear to be ‘stationary’ over a fixed position. Their speed is about 3 km per second.

 

Geostationary orbit

 

As satellites in geostationary orbit continuously cover a large portion of the Earth, this makes it an ideal orbit for telecommunications or for monitoring continent-wide weather patterns and environmental conditions. It also decreases costs as ground stations do not need to track the satellite. A constellation of three equally spaced satellites can provide full coverage of the Earth, except for the Polar Regions.

 

Geostationary transfer orbit

This is an elliptical Earth orbit used to transfer a spacecraft from a low altitude orbit or flight trajectory to geostationary orbit. The apogee is at 36 000 km. When a spacecraft reaches this point, its apogee kick motor is fired to inject it into geostationary orbit.

 

 

Low Earth Orbits   

A low Earth orbit is normally at an altitude of less than 1000 km and could be as low as 160 km above the Earth. Satellites in this circular orbit travel at a speed of around 7.8 km per second. At this speed, a satellite takes approximately 90 minutes to circle the Earth.

In general, these orbits are used for remote sensing, military purposes and for human spaceflight as they offer close proximity to the Earth’s surface for imaging and the short orbital periods allow for rapid revisits. The International Space Station is in low Earth orbit.

 

Medium-low earth orbits

This orbit takes place at an altitude of around 1000 km and is particularly suited for constellations of satellites mainly used for telecommunications. A satellite in this orbit travels at approximately 7.3 km per second.

 

Polar orbits

As the name suggests, polar orbits pass over the Earth’s Polar Regions from north to south. The orbital track of the satellite does not have to cross the poles exactly for an orbit to be called polar, an orbit which passes within 20 to 30 degrees of the poles is still classed as a polar orbit.

These orbits mainly take place at low altitudes of between 200 to 1000 km. Satellites in polar orbit look down on the Earth’s entire surface and can pass over the North and South Poles several times a day.

Polar orbits are used for reconnaissance and Earth observation. If a satellite is in a polar orbit at an altitude of 800 km, it will be traveling at a speed of approximately 7.5 km per second.

 

Sun-synchronous orbit

These are polar orbits that are synchronous with the Sun. A satellite in a sun-synchronous orbit would usually be at an altitude between 600 and 800 km. Generally, these orbits are used for Earth observation, solar study, weather forecasting, and reconnaissance, as ground observation is improved if the surface is always illuminated by the Sun at the same angle when viewed from the satellite.

We, humans, are always curious to know more things about Earth and other planets. So, we launch more satellites. The Sun is the main energy source for satellites, which is why all satellites have solar panel arrays mounted on them. Each array contains thousands of small solar cells which are made of silicon – a material that allows sunlight to be turned into electrical current.

What happens to the launched satellite which is not working?

Satellites which we launch has a time limit, they will be in working condition for some time. After it stops working, it forms debris in space which is known as Space debris.

This material can be as large as a discarded rocket stage or as small as a microscopic chip of paint. Much of the debris is in low Earth orbit, within 2,000 km (1,200 miles) of Earth’s surface; however, some debris can be found in geostationary orbit 35,786 km (22,236 miles) above the Equator. As of 2018, the United States Space Surveillance Network was tracking more than 14,000 pieces of space debris larger than 10 cm (4 inches) across. It is estimated that there are about 200,000 pieces between 1 and 10 cm (0.4 and 4 inches) across and that there could be millions of pieces smaller than 1 cm.

Does debris fall to earth?

How long a piece of space debris takes to fall back to Earth depends on its altitude.
Objects below 600 km (375 miles) orbit several years before reentering Earth’s atmosphere. Objects above 1,000 km (600 miles) orbit for centuries.

What is the problem with Space debris?

The amount of debris in space threatens both manned and unmanned spaceflight. The risk
of a catastrophic collision of a space shuttle with a piece of debris was 1 in 300. (For
missions to the Hubble Space Telescope, with its higher and more debris-filled orbit, the risk
was 1 in 185.) If there is a greater than a 1 in 100,000 chance of a known piece of debris
colliding with the International Space Station (ISS), the astronauts perform a debris
avoidance maneuver in which the ISS’s orbit is raised to avoid the collision. On July 24, 1996, the
first collision between an operational satellite and a piece of space debris took place when a
fragment from the upper stage of a European Ariane rocket collided with Cerise, a French
microsatellite. Cerise was damaged but continued to function. The first collision that
destroyed an operational satellite happened on February 10, 2009, when Iridium 33, a
communications satellite owned by the American company Motorola collided with Cosmos
2251, an inactive Russian military communications satellite, about 760 km (470 miles) above
northern Siberia, shattering both satellites.

The worst space-debris event happened on January 11, 2007, when the Chinese military
destroyed the Fengyun-1C weather satellite in a test of an antisatellite system, creating more
than 3,000 fragments, or more than 20 percent of all space debris. Within two years those
fragments had spread out from Fengyun-1C’s original orbit to form a cloud of debris that
completely encircled Earth and that would not reenter the atmosphere for decades.

On January 22, 2013, the Russian laser-ranging satellite BLITS (Ball Lens in the Space)
experienced a sudden change in its orbit and its spin, which caused Russian scientists to
abandon the mission. The culprit was believed to have been a collision between BLITS and a
piece of Fengyun-1C debris. Fragments from Fengyun-1C, Iridium 33, and Cosmos 2251
account for about one-half of the debris below 1,000 km (620 miles).

What happens if the amount of debris gets increased?

With the increasing amount of space debris, there are fears that collisions such as that
between Iridium 33 and Cosmos-2251 could set off a chain reaction (called the Kessler
syndrome after American scientist Donald Kessler) in which the resulting space debris would
destroy other satellites and so on, with the result that low Earth orbit would become
unusable.

Remedy to get rid of Space debris

To forestall such a buildup in debris, space agencies have begun taking steps to
mitigate the problem, such as burning up all the fuel in a rocket stage, so it does not explode
later or saving enough fuel to deorbit a satellite at the end of its mission. The British satellite
Remove DEBRIS, which was launched in 2018 and deployed from the ISS, has tested two
different technologies for removing space debris, capture with a net and capture with a
harpoon, and will test a drag sail, which will slow down a piece of debris, so it re-enters the
atmosphere. Satellites in geostationary orbit that are near the end of their missions are
sometimes moved to a “graveyard” orbit 300 km (200 miles) higher

Role of India in eradicating space debris:

In an operation known as, ‘Mission Shakti’, an anti-satellite weapon ‘A-SAT’, successfully targeted a live satellite on a Low Earth Orbit in under 3 minutes. They are the fourth nation to be able to do so behind the US, China, and Russia. It was done in March 2019.

Many countries spending crores together to secure their satellites. India is one of them. The Centre has proposed Rs 33.3 crore for ISRO's 'Project Netra' for securing Indian satellites from space debris and other dangers, according to documents related to supplementary demand for grants.

In Sep, India launched the early warning system Netra (Network for Space Objects, Tracking, and Analysis) to secure its satellites and other assets in space at an estimated to cost Rs 400 crore. Scientists say 50 years of human space exploration has led to the creation of junk around Earth's orbit, posing serious traffic risks to man-made satellites.

 

So, we humans are responsible for creating debris and harming ourselves and the earth. We have created a mess on earth and now we have spoiled earth’s atmosphere and entered space to pollute. So, it confirms human himself is polluted physically and mentally thereby wherever he enters he is polluting everything and making life miserable.

Reference:

1.    https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Transportation/Types_of_orbits

2.    Article of Space Debris by Britannica encyclopedia. 

AVIAN MUSICOLOGY ~ knowing about birds communication

 AVIAN MUSICOLOGY

                                                        ~ Knowing about birds communication

-      Haripriya J

The above picture was taken in my friend’s home. When I saw this, first thought came to my mind was what are they doing? Are they conversing to each other? What may be the conversation is about?

When I was imagining about what conversation would have happened between those cute birds first thing came to my mind was: in the first pic: as it was a sunny day birds would have come and sat on the grills to take rest, in the second pic they may be conversing about how climate has changed and causes for its change, third pic may depict that they are worried about their future!

Second thought came to my mind was, how urbanization has affected their lives, they lost their shelter and they are cursing human who was the main cause for it.

Third possibility is, as it was a hot day, one bird has come home late after playing with friends because of which it is getting scolding at home. Elder one is scolding the younger for playing in hot sunny day. It is advising not to do so because it may affect its health. So the other bird bowed its head for repenting of playing out for long in sunny day.

We, Humans have our own imagination. We express it through words. But how birds converse among themselves? Have we ever thought of it?

Yes, like how we communicate with other, even animals and birds also communicate with each other. We communicate with words, expressions, similarly they too communicate in many ways.

The only alarm in olden days was cock. People used to get up by its sound. And during sun set all birds will fly back to its nest by making sounds. Daily we come across various sounds from morning till evening and even in night too (some insects make sound). Just imagine what if there is no sound from animals or birds?

How do birds communicate?

The first thing you might have noticed was the sounds the birds were making. The voice is often the most noticeable form of bird communication. Bird communication using sound includes singing, calls, squeaks, squawks, gurgles, warbles, trills, rattles, gulps, pops, whines, clicks, croaks, drums, whistles, howls, tremolos, thumps, honks and many other sorts of sounds.

Not all birds use their voice as their main method of communication. Some birds, such as the ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus), make non-vocal sound by beating the air with their wings. This is done in a way where the wings create a vacuum and the sound is caused by the air rushing in to fill up that space, essentially creating a mini- sonic boom. This sound is used to establish and hold a territory. Another example, the Wilson’s snipe (Gallinago delicata) uses special tail feathers which its spreads during an earthward dive. As it plummets down, it beats its wings in a way that guides air through the feathers creating a winnowing sound. The snipe uses this during courtship.

Bird communication also happens through visual displays. These are often a combination of behaviors and the feathers on the bird’s body. In the case of the blackbirds, the males puff up their feathers, lean forward, shrug their shoulders showing off their colorful shoulders, and exaggerates them with bold postures. They also sing out as they do this making their statement loud and clear. So it is with many species of birds, both the visual and sound- based behaviors are used to communicate.

 

Why do birds communicate?

Birds use their voices to make sounds for all sorts of reasons, such as: claiming territory, seeking mates, begging for food, calling their chicks or mate, staying in touch with flock mates, scolding an intruder of the same species or different species, announcing the presence of a predator, singing a duet with a mate and many other reasons.

Sound is a great form of bird communication because it can carry beyond where birds can see. In some cases, sounds can travel over a mile or several miles under the right conditions. Also, if you are a bird that lives in a thicket, it helps to use your voice to stay in touch with your mate or with the members of your flock. Birds also tend to have very keen eyes so it is no surprise that visual displays are included in bird communication.

Consider the male red-winged blackbirds. They have deep, black colored bodies, black wings, black heads and eyes, black tails and those brilliant red and yellow wing patches. The red and yellow colors contrast starkly with the black, making these birds stunning to look at in full display. The way in which the males flash their brilliant wing patches as they sing adds to their messages. Both gestures together are used by the birds to try and communicate that they are claiming this patch of the cattail marsh as their territory.

The displays don't go unnoticed by the females either. Females of most bird species are generally duller looking in color compared to the males. Females are also very critical of the appearance of males, and when choosing a mate they don't just listen to his song, but also closely scrutinize his appearance. Why, you might ask? The healthier and more impressive a male birds feathers are, the healthier are his genes. Females want to mate with only the best males. If he sings well and has great plumage, she will want him to father her chicks.

Have you noticed peacock?

Visual displays are not about a bird's feathers, but also includes how a bird uses them. Consider a male peacock's beautiful tail. It is not enough for him to just have a beautiful tail, he also has to flaunt it many times every day to get the attention of the females. Though some birds communicate largely through visual displays or sound, most birds use some combination of both.

Can we understand bird communication?

Yes, it is possible for us to learn to understand bird communication. For example, the beautiful visual displays of a peacock or red-winged blackbird, or the enchanting song of a wood thrush or Swainson's thrush communicates to all of us on a personal level. That personal experience and the meaning we gain from it is different for each of us. It is also possible to understand bird communication in the context of how the birds themselves might understand it.

For starters, nothing birds do is without purpose. There are many levels of meaning in bird communication. On one level we can observe the colors and patterns on a bird, and recognize that it is sending a signal to other birds. One signal that it is sending is, "I belong to this species." Each species of bird looks and sounds different, this helps to distinguish whether a bird is a possible mate or not.

On another level, we might pay attention to the physical behaviors of a bird. For instance, is the bird feeding calmly or is it flying away and hiding in cover from a potential threat? Since birds can puff out or flatten down their feathers at will, how the feathers look might help understand how a bird is feeling or what it is trying to communicate. A bird that suddenly puffs itself up might be expressing the intensity of its current feelings. The raising of a birds crest might mean it is feeling aggressive, excitement or curious. A rigid, jumpy posture might mean it is frightened and ready to flee. Slower, more deliberate movements might show you that a bird is feeling relatively relaxed and calm.

A wealth of information on a bird's state of mind is to be found in the nuances of their behaviors and the intonations of their calls and songs.

There is also a way of studying bird communication that allows you to use the sounds and behaviors of birds to tell you about other, more elusive animals in the forest. This is described as the study of birds’ language. Bird communication changes with the seasons and times of
year in any given location.

Have you heard of talking bird?

We heard that birds such as parrot speak like us. They respond to us. Although parrots probably do not understand complex meanings of words, they are attuned to the context surrounding words and can make associations with the words. Parrots' mimicry is impressive. Monk Parakeet also called the Quaker Parakeet, this colorful little bird is actually a small parrot. They are known for being very clever and social, developing large vocabularies of phrases and words. Birds have varying degrees of talking ability: some, like the corvids, are able to mimic only a few words and phrases, while some budgerigars have been observed to have a vocabulary of almost 2,000 words. Still there is debate within the scientific community over whether some talking parrots also have some cognitive understanding of the language.

                                                                                      Monk Parakeets

We humans always make us centric and express that we are superior in the earth, we dominate other creatures. But we should not forget that other creatures of earth also have same right as we have. They have their own world, they have families, friends and yes they do communicate with each other and they can mimic the speech of humans.

Reference:

1. Bird communication- An introduction by Filip Tkaczyk

2. Images- Google source